HEATHER EWART, PRESENTER: In extraordinary circumstances, Queenslanders today learned their state election will be held on 24th March.

The date was set after the state's flood inquiry announced it's re-opening hearings into the management of Brisbane's major dam, during last summer's floods.

The inquiry's final report will be released before the poll, which will see Anna Bligh struggle to retain government against the Liberal/National Party led by Campbell Newman.

John Taylor reports from Brisbane.

JOHN TAYLOR, REPORTER: Saturating rain, flash flooding, emergency crews on alert, nature is again buffeting south-east Queensland. Weather, politics, the past and the future, today all came together in extraordinary and strange circumstances.

ANNA BLIGH, QLD PREMIER: I am acting here in the interests of Queenslanders, not in the interests of myself or my party or the Government.

CAMPBELL NEWMAN, LNP LEADER: Today's announcement of this election by Premier Anna Bligh is not actually about the people of Queensland, it's about the Australian Labor Party.

JOHN TAYLOR: Queensland has three-year, non-fixed parliamentary terms. The election date changes every time. Anna Bligh today broke new ground, setting the election for 24th March, nearly three years exactly since the last one. But the campaign doesn't officially begin now; that'll happen in the middle of February. And local government elections, which were fixed for late March, are now being delayed. It's unprecedented.

ANNA BLIGH: I don't believe that Queenslanders should go to the election, vote for a candidate at a mayoral, at local council or a state level, who they may find ultimately is the subject of an adverse finding by a commission of inquiry. I think a voter would be rightly unhappy about that and feel cheated.

JOHN TAYLOR: Ostensibly why it's all happening is the decision by the Queensland floods commission to reopen hearings, just weeks ahead of when it was supposed to release its final report. For the past year its job has been to examine the unprecedented flood disaster that affected 70 per cent of the state, saw Grantham devastated and Brisbane endure its worst flood in decades.

JOHN TAYLOR: But the functioning at the time, Brisbane's major dam, Wivenhoe, has been brought into fresh question by a series of reports in The Australian newspaper.

ANNA BLIGH: My family and the people I love all live in this city, and like every other Queenslander, I want the truth. This committee, this commission was set up to establish that truth. I'm not afraid of that truth and I believe every flood victim deserves that truth.

JOHN TAYLOR: The big question is whether the operators of Brisbane's Wivenhoe Dam mismanaged the crisis and made a natural disaster even worse. They were cleared by the flood commission's interim report, released months ago, but over the past few days emails have been published that suggest that the commission was misled, and so the commission has re-opened hearings.

PAUL PISASALE, IPSWICH MAYOR: To have it recalled is letting me know and the rest of Queensland know that something's wrong somewhere in regards to the evidence that was given.

JOHN TAYLOR: Paul Pisasale is the mayor of Ipswich, near Brisbane. His community was devastated last year, and he wants answers.

PAUL PISASALE: The main focus for us was the dam - you know, the operation of the dam and how affected our city and that of Brisbane. And what's happened now - what it's done is actually put a massive great cloud and - over the evidence that was given compared to the emails. So, when that contradicts itself, it only leads to one thing: someone's either misled the commission or misled the Government, and we need to get to the bottom of it because we're not gonna have any closure.

JOHN TAYLOR: But the campaign is going to be about more than just last year's floods. Anna Bligh has been Australia's first woman elected Premier since 2009, but for roughly all but two of the last 23 years, Labor has held power. The legacy of longevity isn't all positive. A Health Department seemingly in perpetual crisis. A former minister jailed for corruption. Controversial asset sales. The Liberal National Party need to win just 14 seats on a uniform swing of about four and a half per cent to take government.

ANTONY GREEN, ABC ELECTION ANALYST: The polls are all pointing to a change of government. The Labor Party had a bit of a boost in early 2011 with the Premier's handling of the floods crisis, but once Campbell Newman became leader, the yawning gap between the LNP and the Labor vote reopened, and you'd have to put money on the LNP winning the election.

ANNA BLIGH: There'll be a number of issues that people will consider in this election campaign. Right at the top of my list will be how we harness the very bright prospects that we have coming down our path economically; how we make sure we manage Queensland for all of us, not just for some of us. How we make sure, for example, that our mining royalties can be distributed in a way that benefit every Queenslander. That's why I'll be putting education right at the top of my tree. I'll also be looking at how we protect our environment so that we protect our lifestyle as we grow into a bigger state.

JOHN TAYLOR: This contest has been strange for quite a while. While he was still a popular Lord Mayor of Brisbane and not even a member of Parliament, Campbell Newman became the state Liberal/National Party leader.

CAMPBELL NEWMAN (March, 2011): I'm prepared to sacrifice what I've been doing in Brisbane City to actually look after the people of Queensland. I'm so passionate about Queensland. I want to get Queensland back on track.

JOHN TAYLOR: In March the electorate will decide if the move was audacious or foolish.

CAMPBELL NEWMAN: We've said how we will reduce the cost of living for families by cutting government waste and inefficiency. We will tackle and stimulate a four pillar economy in Queensland: mining, tourism, agriculture and construction. We'll make sure that we revitalise frontline services like nurses and doctors and fire fighters, police on the beat. We're gonna make sure that we do better planning, deliver better infrastructure. And finally, and most importantly, we will restore people's faith in government in Queensland.

JOHN TAYLOR: And this is an election contest that will be ruled largely by what happens in Brisbane.

ANTONY GREEN: Since 1992 - 1989, the Labor Party's had a lock on Brisbane. Labor currently holds 34 of the 40 seats in what you can define as Greater Brisbane, from Caboolture to Beenleigh, west to Ipswich. That is where the election's going to be decided, and importantly, Campbell Newman is the first Brisbane-based leader of conservative politics in Queensland in a century.

JOHN TAYLOR: This is all new territory; an election date, but Parliament is yet to be dissolved. A party led by someone not even in Parliament. A commission of inquiry re-opening hearings.

CAMPBELL NEWMAN: So I say to you, we are ready to fight this campaign. We have a strong, united team. They're ready to campaign. Not worried about an eight-week campaign - so be it.

ANNA BLIGH: There's no doubt that the 2012 election is going to be a very, very fierce contest. I understand that I'm in for the fight of my life and I intend to give it that.